The US House of Representatives is expected on Thursday to approve a bill that will block various civil lawsuits filed against US gun manufacturers. Both Republicans and Democrats predicted that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act would be approved with bipartisan support, clearing the way for President Bush to sign the law. The [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Robert Amsterdam, international defense counsel for Russian billionaire and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, recently imprisoned for tax fraud after a long and politically-controversial trial, says his client's case is a call to the West to wake up to fundamental threats to the rule of law in Putin's Russia … The [...]

The Malawi parliament has adopted procedures for the impeachment of the country's president, who has been accused of misusing state funds and violating the country's constitution. Legislators approved the procedures late Tuesday in a growing dispute between President Bingu wa Mutharika and opposition politicians backed by former President Bakili Muluzi . Muluzi hand-picked wa Mutharika [...]

Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev have reportedly been sent to remote prisons in Siberia and the far north of the country to serve eight-year sentences after being convicted of fraud and tax evasion . Defense lawyers for Lebedev said his family had been notified that he was sent [...]

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. v. Google Inc., United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, October 19, 2005 . Read the full text of the complaint here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Colombia's Constitutional Court Wednesday upheld legislation that would change the country's constitution to allow presidents to serve more than one term, a ruling that could allow Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to seek re-election next May. The amendment was approved last year by legislators. Uribe has sought to extend his crackdown against militants and drug czars [...]

Morocco has prevented UN officials from visiting African migrants detained in the country despite repeated requests for access, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported Wednesday. The agency has said it fears that Morocco has forced many of the migrants to return to their home countries in the face of persecution and despite valid asylum [...]

Iraqi police on Wednesday arrested a nephew of Saddam Hussein in Tikrit on charges that he has served as a leading financier of the country's insurgency, Iraqi security officials reported. Yasir Sabhawi Ibrahim is the son of Saddam's half brother Sabhawi Ibrahim Hasan, who was captured earlier this year in Syria. Ibrahim reportedly was hiding [...]

The US Senate moved Wednesday to cut federal funding for projects that seize peoples' homes for private development, continuing a backlash to a recent controversial ruling by the US Supreme Court . The amendment to HR 3058 , the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Bill, offered by Sen. Kit Bond and approved Wednesday by a voice vote, cuts [...]

Spanish High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz on Wednesday issued an international arrest warrant for three US soldiers from the 3rd Infantry, Sgt. Thomas Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, over the death of a Spanish cameraman during the war in Iraq. Pedraz ordered the arrest of the soldiers with the plan [...]